


This Means War

by afteriwake



Series: Home Is Where You Are [3]
Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Cheating at games, Cheering Up, Chess, Domestic Fluff, F/M, First Kiss, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Laughter, Sherlock Being Considerate, Sherlock Holmes Has a Heart, Sherlock is a Good Boyfriend, Silly Molly, Silly Sherlock, cheek kiss
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-29
Updated: 2016-08-29
Packaged: 2018-08-11 18:33:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,250
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7903273
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afteriwake/pseuds/afteriwake
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In an effort to make Molly feel better about being at Baker Street, Sherlock arranges for them to play chess, and Molly convinces him to play <i>her</i> version of the game.</p>
            </blockquote>





	This Means War

**Author's Note:**

  * For [luminescentglow](https://archiveofourown.org/users/luminescentglow/gifts).



> So a while back there was [a post on Tumblr](http://idiopathicsmile.tumblr.com/post/141379620228/you-know-whats-probably-more-fun-than-playing) about how cheating at chess was more fun than simply playing chess by **idiopathicsmile** that my friend **luminescentglow** had asked me to write as a Sherlolly fic, and I finally got around to it as my last fic for day 1 of Molly Hooper Appreciation Week. I had a lot of fun with this one, I really did.

By the end of her first week at Baker Street she realized that, perhaps, it was wearing on her a bit, having to leave her home and most of her belongings behind. She wasn’t quite sure what to do about it, though. It wasn’t as though Sherlock was making her a prisoner, but he was keeping a close eye on her. After all, someone had tried to kidnap her with the intent of potentially killing her just to get to him. So he wanted to make sure she was safe, especially since they had agreed to start dating. And she appreciated it, but there was almost a sense of being...well...trapped, in a way.

But at least he was trying to make her feel better.

She came back from work, having been picked up by one of Mycroft’s cars at the entrance and driven directly to Baker Street with a man guarding her in the back, to see Sherlock sitting at his chair with a chess board on the table between his chair and the one she favored. She gave him a look. “You mentioned once you like to play chess,” he said.

“I do,” she said with a smile, setting her coat and handbag down on the sofa before going over to the chair. “Though you may not like the way I play chess.”

“Oh?” he asked.

“I cheat outrageously,” she said. “I mean, I _can_ play a normal game, but I find it’s more fun when I cheat.”

He looked over at her. “Define ‘outrageously,’” he said.

“Well, let’s just say you stand no hope of winning,” she said with an impish smile.

“If I let you cheat outrageously, would that improve your mood?” he asked in a genuinely curious tone.

“It would, but if you don’t want to play that way we don’t have to. I love regular chess as well, Sherlock, and I don’t want to upset you. _I_ may love playing when I cheat but it may be another matter for you. You may get frustrated and not want to finish the game, and then that would make me feel bad.” She reached over to take his hand in hers. “If you want, let’s try one game my way and see if you can stomach it, and if you can’t then we’ll play a game of regular chess.”

“That sounds fair,” he said with a nod. Molly squeezed his hand once and then settled back into her chair. Sherlock gestured to the board and then waited for Molly to make the first move. They made a few moves and then Molly made a move with her pawn that a bishop would usually make. Sherlock frowned. “That was an illegal move.”

“Ohhh, would you look at that,” Molly said with a smirk. “My pawns found Jesus and now they’re all bishops.”

Sherlock stared at her and then chuckled slightly. “Oh. So now I see how you cheat.”

“Oh yes,” Molly said, her smirk turning into a wide grin. “Feel free to do likewise. It’s more fun if I’m not the only one doing so.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” he said, making a move of his own. After a few more moves Molly got up to get a drink and something to eat, offering to get Sherlock something as well, though he declined. When she came back she saw that the pieces of Sherlock’s she had captured were no longer off the board and were instead back on the board and in rather strategic positions on the board. “Welcome back. While you left to get a snack, those six pieces you’d captured slipped their guards, tunneled to safety and emerged right in the middle of your royal palace.”

“Oh, that was a beautiful move,” Molly said with a laugh. “I’ll find a way to get even, though.”

“You’ll _try_ ,” Sherlock said with a smirk.

“You seem to be having fun with this,” she said, making another move.

“I’ll admit, this is a rather interesting way to play the game,” he said, making a move to counter hers. “It’s vastly more entertaining than playing against my brother. He’s quite a bore to play against.”

“Well, perhaps we can play more games together if we get bored,” she said with a grin. “I mean, you can’t always be a sore loser.”

“Oh, I don’t know about that,” he said.

“I could always make it worth your while even if you lose,” she said. “I mean, I could always do something for you that’s nice if you don’t pitch a fit.”

“That is tempting,” he said. He watched her make another move and then made one of his own. “I’m contemplating all the ways I can make another move to liven up this game.”

“There are oh so many,” she said. She got up after a moment and went to her sewing kit that was by the sofa and rummaged through it for a moment, and then came over and put a thimble on the board. “So I realize it looks like I’m putting a thimble on the board but actually my rooks have been using their downtime to build another rook, one that’s better, stronger, faster—” 

“I see,” Sherlock said with a knowing nod. “And you think this extra rook will save you in this game?”

“Yes, I do,” she said with an emphatic nod.

“We’ll see,” he said as he made a move and took the thimble off the board.

“Well, that’s just rude,” she said with a mock pout.

“It wasn’t that effective, apparently,” he said with a smirk.

“Then I’ll just have to kick your arse the old-fashioned way,” she said in a determined voice. The two of them continued to make moves on the board, going on until Molly had his king cornered. “Ha!”

“Oh, it looks like you’ve got my king cornered,” Sherlock said, his tone faux cheerful. “Maybe this is a good time to mention that shortly before we started playing, my pawns and knights revolted and instituted a representative democracy. Feel free to kill the puppet ruler that was the one remaining vestige of our tyranny, you cringing servant of the crown. _Vive la revolution_!”

Molly stared at him open-mouthed and then began to laugh. She laughed so hard that tears began to fall down her cheeks and she leaned into the side of her chair. When she finally calmed down she got up out of the chair and then went to his chair and sat on the arm of it, leaning over and kissing his cheek. “Oh, Sherlock, thank you,” she said.

He looked up at her, giving her a smile. “You’re welcome,” he said.

She looked down at him for a moment and then hesitantly leaned in and kissed him softly. She hadn’t actually kissed him before, but it just felt right to do so now. He reached up to caress her face as he kissed her back and after a few moments they pulled apart. “I, um, I’m...”

“We should do that again,” he said quietly.

“Are you sure?” she asked. He nodded. “Okay.” She leaned in again and this time he pulled her off the arm of the chair onto his lap. Once she got settled into a more comfortable position he leaned in and kissed her softly and she realized that this wasn’t how she had expected her day to go but it was immeasurably better than she could have hoped it would be.


End file.
